Managed by Ed Della Vecchio, the Bellows Storm -- a combination of players from Bellows Chiropractic and the Stratford Storm -- won the SCL regular-season title, won the North Atlantic Regional in Wallingford and then won the AABC World Series in Farmingdale, N.Y., finishing with a stellar 32-4-1 record.

But in late February, Della Vecchio decided to try to field a full team and said goodbye to his merger with the Stratford Storm.

What happened next? Well, that's up for debate.

Della Vecchio says that he was voted out of the league this season, and that's true, in a sense. However, SCL president Tom Hanley says he never heard from Della Vecchio about trying to field a full team until after the 2014 schedule was already finalized and all the insurance payments and field permits were filed. And when he polled the other SCL managers regarding Bellows' readmission into the league, the answer was no.

Bellows was one of three teams that were turned away by the league because their applications were too late.

"We have such a small window of securing field dates and getting fees paid," said Hanley, who also manages the Milford Hunters. "I don't know if anyone knew he was trying to put a team back in the league. He was part of a team last year and no one knew any of the dynamics of him possibly forming a new team. When he texted me (on April 10) about it, I put it to a league vote, I told them that Bellows was a forming a new team and what do you think? And everyone said it's too late, we have to move on."

Fedell's manager Mike Fedell said that Della Vecchio called him on March 17 to see what was going on with the league and that he wanted to bring his old team back.

"I told him to call Tom right away and to this day, he's never called Tom to my knowledge," said Fedell, whose team finished second in the National Amateur Baseball Federation World Series in Battle Creek, Mich., last season. "He did send a text message late at night in the middle of April to Tom, saying he wanted to know how much the fee was for the league. By that point, the schedule was done, all the insurance was filed, we had NABF and AABC affiliations filled out with the eight teams we had. He came in a day late and a dollar short."

Hanley said that the only correspondence he ever received from Della Vecchio was a text message on April 10, asking about how much the entry fee was.

Della Vecchio admits to never calling Hanley regarding bringing his full Bellows team back into the league but says that after 28 seasons in the SCL, that he deserved a call from the league president to see what his future might be.

"I never got a text, got an e-mail or got a phone call regarding any meetings," Della Vecchio said. "Maybe it's entitlement on my part but I never got that courtesy."

Maybe that was because for the past two seasons, Bellows has played as a combined team. In 2012, they merged with Dri-Tec Waterproofing of Stratford to form Bellows/Dri-Tec, and after that season, it had become fairly clear that Bellows was going to fold its team and retire from the league. But just prior to the 2013 season, Stratford Storm manager Mike Siksay went to Della Vecchio and asked if he wanted to merge his remaining players, around five or six, into the Storm team. Della Vecchio said yes.

After winning the SCL regular-season title and eventually the AABC World Series, Della Vecchio decided to go his own way and work to bring back a full Bellows team.

"I just assumed that they were going to stay together, they were a championship team," Fedell said. "But they decided that they were not going to work together. No one told the league that."

Both Hanley and Fedell said that a team from Orange and another team from Fairfield were denied admission for 2014 because they were also late in applying. However, both teams will have players playing for other SCL teams this season and will look to join the league in 2015.

"We turned down a new team from Orange who wanted to come in the first week of April because it was too late," Fedell said. "How do you say no to a new team and then two weeks later, say yes to another team? You can't do that. You can't favor someone at the last minute. They (Bellows) were late."

Bellows can apply for readmission next season.

"Would I like to see Bellows in the league next year? Yes," Fedell said. "And I've told (sponsor) Kevin Bellows that. If they want to come back, and I have no reason to say no, but they've got to do it like everyone else. One of our new teams, the Danbury Pirates, started the process last December coming to meetings, getting field dates and paying their money.

"Ed's been doing this a long time, it's not like he's new to the rodeo. He's been in this league for over 25 years. Every year the league has meetings, February, March, April. It's been that way forever. And he didn't know to call someone and say, `I want to put a team back in.' He never called Tom. If he had, I think he would have gotten back in. As much as I would like to see Bellows in the league again because the rivalry between my team and Bellows has been great for 20 years, they didn't do what they were supposed to do." Hanley would like to see Bellows back in the SCL next year, too.

"Bellows has had great teams every year I've been in the league," Hanley said. "I hope they are back next year. Nothing bad can come from them playing."